Know What's Happening in SpaceTech
Know What's Happening in SpaceTech
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Every morning
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Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping satellite operations, enabling real‑time capacity management and on‑orbit data processing. Smaller, agile constellations now require decision speeds that outpace human operators, prompting a shift toward AI‑driven bandwidth allocation and autonomous payload control. By processing imagery and telemetry in space, AI reduces downlink volume and cuts operational costs while enhancing resilience in contested environments. Europe, despite strong AI ethics leadership, risks falling behind the United States and China due to fragmented funding, slow adoption, and cumbersome procurement.
On February 20, 1962, NASA launched Mercury‑Atlas 6, sending John Glenn aboard the Friendship 7 capsule into orbit. Glenn completed three Earth orbits in 4 hours 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the planet. The mission faced a sensor fault and required manual piloting for the...
Space‑based solar power (SBSP) is shifting from grand‑scale grid concepts to niche markets such as orbital data centers, remote military sites, and lunar installations. Startups like Aetherflux and Overview Energy are leveraging laser‑based power‑beaming and large‑satellite designs, backed by DoD...
Avalanche Technology unveiled its VNX+ storage module, combining Space Grade MRAM with Lattice’s CertusPro‑NX FPGA to deliver true radiation immunity without sacrificing density, speed, or endurance. The solution is engineered for military and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) applications and satisfies...
Boeing has inaugurated a 9,000‑square‑foot electro‑optical infrared (EO/IR) production line at its El Segundo satellite facility to support the Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking (MWT) program. The line will help Millennium Space Systems deliver 12 medium‑Earth‑orbit satellites by 2027,...
Doñana National Park, Spain’s flagship wetland, is losing surface water at an accelerating pace, according to ESA Sentinel‑2 satellite analysis. Researchers using machine‑learning classification found a marked decline in wet area, volume and depth since 2005, projecting potential desiccation within...
Boeing has opened a 9,000‑square‑foot production facility at its El Segundo campus to manufacture electro‑optical infrared (EO/IR) sensors for U.S. military satellites. The plant will support Millennium Space Systems’ near‑$1 billion contract portfolio, including 12 missile‑warning satellites and a $414 million award...
Orbex, a UK‑based rocket developer once valued at $220 million, entered administration after the government withdrew a planned funding round despite earlier £26 million support. The collapse underscores the repeated failure of state‑led investment in Britain’s nascent space sector. Meanwhile, the global...
NASA will begin a 700,000‑gallon cryogenic propellant load on the Space Launch System at Kennedy Space Center as part of a second wet‑dress rehearsal for Artemis II. The test follows a February 2 leak of liquid hydrogen that forced a pause in...
The U.S. Space Force is accelerating its integrated‑defense agenda across multiple fronts. Boeing opened a dedicated production line for electro‑optical infrared sensors to bolster missile‑warning capabilities, while the service is streamlining the transition of battle‑management tools from labs to operators....
SpaceX will launch the Falcon 9 Starlink 10‑36 mission from Cape Canaveral on Thursday night, targeting a 95% favorable weather window. The first‑stage booster, on its 26th flight, will attempt a downrange landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed off...
The ESA‑China SMILE spacecraft has completed its Atlantic crossing and arrived at Kourou’s Europe’s Spaceport, ready for integration with a Vega‑C launcher. A launch window from 8 April to 7 May 2026 has been set, targeting a comprehensive study of Earth’s response...
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has opened the CASSINI Challenge to attract innovative startup ideas for upcoming EU satellite launches. The competition seeks concepts that can transition quickly from prototype to market‑ready solutions, offering participants access...
NASA’s Artemis program has introduced the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), a next‑generation lunar spacesuit designed for the harsh South Pole environment. The suit adopts a commercial xEVAS procurement model, giving private partner Axiom Space ownership and the ability to...
The episode breaks down Singapore’s launch of its National Space Agency (NSAS) announced at the Space Summit 2026, highlighting the nation’s strategic shift from a regional tech hub to a pivotal player in the global space economy. It explains how...
The U.S. Air Force has taken ownership of the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A‑GRA) and applied it to multiple aircraft, proving AI wingmen can operate on rival platforms such as the YFQ‑42 and YFQ‑44. By decoupling software from any single...
Between Gemini 3.1 and Claude 4.6 it's honestly wild what you can build. This feels like Google Earth and Palantir had a baby. Made this with all the geospatial bells and whistles -- real time plane & satellite tracking, real traffic...
NASA has reached the end of today's Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal with no major issues reported. https://t.co/CwpiNIEJYz https://t.co/rPZmmaWMuf
Finland has transformed from a modest satellite launcher into a competitive space hub within a decade, leveraging its engineering heritage and strategic government backing. The nation boosted its ESA contribution by 59%, reaching €233 million for 2025, while Finnish firms ICEYE,...
The U.S. Space Force is restructuring its advanced battle‑management pipeline by moving the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications, and Processing (SDA TAP) Lab under the Kronos command‑and‑control system. Over the next 18 months, the program aims to transition more lab‑derived tools...
NASA released the investigation of the Starliner Crew Flight Test, labeling it a Type A mishap. The probe identified five service‑module thruster failures caused by oxidizer‑vapor‑induced two‑phase flow and Teflon poppet extrusion, and widespread helium‑manifold leaks due to seal material incompatibility...
Artemis II WDR still proceeding well. Closeout crew has left the pad. Just over one hour to opening of simulated launch window. https://t.co/Yi2WnQb4m5
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC) unveiled a five‑year roadmap that includes building a space‑based data centre, alongside asteroid mining, debris monitoring and tourism initiatives. The orbital data centre would rely on solar power to deliver computing, storage and...
Valour Consultancy’s latest IFEC Market Tracker shows fewer than 12,000 commercial aircraft—under half the global fleet—are equipped with in‑flight connectivity. SpaceX leads with contracts for more than 5,000 aircraft, while Chinese carriers dominate the list of airlines with the most...
If you’re an engineer you need to at least read the executive summary of the Starliner Anomaly Investigation Report
The easy thing to do—the expected thing, really—would have been for NASA to sweep this report under the rug, declare Starliner-CFT a great learning experience, and say everything is going well. NASA did not do the easy thing. https://t.co/yNN1rRnLYi
The satellite sector is shifting from launch‑centric hardware to data‑centric services, introducing a "space data layer" that fuses edge computing, AI, and optical links in orbit. This layer aims to turn raw sensor streams into sub‑second, actionable insights, effectively extending...
The episode highlights three major developments in the defense and commercial space sector: Stratolaunch securing a $90.8 million Department of War contract for the MACH‑TB 2.0 air‑launched test vehicle program, Agile Space Industries closing a $17 million Series A round to expand its small‑sat...
China has submitted ITU filings for roughly 203,000 low‑Earth‑orbit satellites, marking a strategic shift from technical catch‑up to regulatory flooding. By exploiting Equivalent Power Flux Density limits, Beijing aims to reserve large portions of the interference budget, forcing rivals such...
MDA Space announced the launch of 49North, a new subsidiary dedicated to defense services such as C4ISR integration, radar, autonomous systems, and secure mission software. Joe Armstrong, a former CAE vice‑president, was named the first president. The unit builds on...
This is encouraging: "Teams reached this step without exceeding the ground safety limit of the hydrogen leak concentration, as was observed during the first Artemis II wet dress rehearsal."
Southwest Research Institute and NSF‑NCAR have unveiled PINNBARDS, a physics‑informed neural network that translates surface magnetograms of solar active regions into deep‑layer magnetic states. By reconstructing tachocline dynamics from SDO/HMI data, the tool can forecast the emergence of large, flare‑producing...
In early 2026 Texas declared a disaster as the New World screwworm, eradicated in the U.S. since 1966, moved within striking distance of the border, threatening up to $1.8 billion in cattle losses. To counter the risk, satellite‑enabled livestock tags from...
News conf upshot: NASA acknowledges poor decision making thruout Starliner prog and esp while crew was on orbit. Now correctly classified as Type A mishap. NASA still committed to Starliner, but will be leadership and other changes at NASA. Rpt...
Here's the full, 312-page report of findings from the Program Investigation Team regarding the Starliner crew flight test. https://t.co/rd3RyEQ4YZ
Astronomers using JWST have identified COSMOS2020‑635829 as a candidate jellyfish galaxy at redshift z = 1.156, roughly 5 billion years after the Big Bang. The galaxy exhibits a unilateral tail of star‑forming knots, indicating ram‑pressure stripping in a proto‑cluster environment. Spectroscopic data reveal extremely...
Some incredible transparency from @NASAAdmin @rookisaacman regarding the Starliner crew fiasco. It will not fly again until the ROOT CAUSE is addressed, not just bandaided. I don’t see how this is can be worth it to Boeing anymore TBH. They...
NASA released the final investigation report on Boeing's CST‑100 Starliner crewed flight test, declaring the mission a Type A mishap. The test, launched on June 5 2024, was extended to 93 days after propulsion anomalies and ultimately returned without the crew, who later flew...
Researchers at Michigan State University have used computer simulations to demonstrate that gravitational collapse can produce double‑lobed, snowman‑shaped Kuiper Belt objects like Arrokoth. By modeling a pebble cloud of 100,000 particles, they showed that low‑velocity collisions (<5 m/s) can fuse two...
SpaceX and Blue Origin have abruptly redirected their long‑term goals from Mars and sub‑orbital tourism to lunar development. SpaceX announced it will swap its planned Martian city for a moon settlement, while Blue Origin paused New Shepard flights to concentrate...
SpaceX and Blue Origin have abruptly shifted focus from Mars and sub‑orbital tourism to lunar development, aligning with the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile‑shield program. SpaceX announced plans for a moon city and is eyeing a potential $2 billion contract to launch...
The SLS Core Stage is 100% full with liquid hydrogen, reaching that step without the leaks experienced in the first Wet Dress Rehearsal. Core stage LOX also full. Upper stage in progress. https://t.co/l57ViNyv7v https://t.co/osaGFUDs2r
Ok, random… but amidst today’s WDR, NASA will give an update on Starliner 👀 what the heck?! That’s out of the blue 🤔 https://t.co/9E8Dzo770R
Magdrive’s Rogue plasma thruster completed its first orbital firing test, demonstrating that a sliver of copper or aluminum can serve as propellant. The 3‑kg unit stores up to 10 kJ in commercial supercapacitors and discharges up to 200 W to create plasma...
NASA will hold a live news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb 19, 2026, to release the investigation findings from Boeing’s 2024 Starliner crewed test flight to the International Space Station. The briefing, streamed on NASA’s YouTube channel, will feature Administrator...
Visitors to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in February and March 2026 can see NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Launch Complex 39B, the vehicle slated for Artemis II. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of the SLS and Orion,...
Award-Winning NASA Camera Revolutionizes How We See the Invisible https://t.co/4l8gHwzgAN 4 Min Read Award-Winning NASA Camera Revolutionizes How We See the Invisible A shock wave interacting with a thin layer of fluid at Mach 10 in a … https://t.co/upxwqHYGvJ
Japanese lunar lander firm ispace announced delays in its third mission after encountering development problems with the VoidRunner engine, a joint effort with Agile Space Industries. The engine replacement forced redesigns, pushing the NASA‑backed CLPS mission from 2026 to 2027....
NASA released an image of lysozyme protein crystals cultivated aboard the International Space Station using Redwire’s PIL-BOX hardware. The experiment is part of a broader study examining how microgravity influences crystal formation across various compounds. Lysozyme, a common immune protein,...
Irish start‑up Setanta Space has launched to deliver modular, radiation‑tolerant onboard computing hardware paired with AI software that makes spacecraft more autonomous. The platform processes sensor data, detects anomalies, and makes decisions in orbit, cutting latency and reliance on ground...
